


you just accidentally fell asleep on my shoulder, but i don't mind

by what_the_gosh_dang



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Teacher!Dan, Underground, businessman!Phil, non-youtuber au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:05:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4993132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/what_the_gosh_dang/pseuds/what_the_gosh_dang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan takes the underground at a very bad time of night while slightly intoxicated</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Dan absolutely hates taking the underground. He hates all the noisy people, the crowded space, and especially that weird sticky thing that’s always on the railings when he grabs onto them. Even when he finds a seat, he always finds something sticky on that too, not to mention that there’s always a lady with a crying baby that always looks at him weird whenever he sits next to her. He didn’t have enough money to buy a car and the last time he tried to bike anywhere, he was always trapped by crowds of people that all decided to go downtown at the exact time. God forbid he tries to walk, that’s just out of the question. So yeah, Dan really hates the underground. But it’s part of his routine and he aims to follow it pretty thoroughly: wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, head to work via underground, work, head back home via underground, eat dinner, sleep. It’s not much, but he doesn’t need much to be satisfied.

It just… that god damn underground gets him every time.

So when a co-worker of his invites him to drinks hours after he had gotten home from work, he’s almost disappointed. He has a couple of drinks, nothing too serious, and leaves before his co-worker is able to get him into anything to drastic.

It’s almost midnight when he’s fully disappointed and stranded outside the bar, feeling a little more than slightly drunk now, as he has no ride home and his house is on the complete other side of London. So he has to take the underground. Dan finds the desired station in a slight hurry cause he really just wants to get home, and since it was only about 11:45, he shouldn't have too much hassle with other people. His wishes were indeed granted when he saw the lack of people on his underground car. The only remnants contained an old man who was reading, a (probable) married couple that were asleep on each other’s shoulders, and now, himself. Dan sits down carefully, taking up only his one seat, and plugs in his headphones in fear of having to make contact with anybody.

It takes a couple of stops until Dan is jolted out of his sleepless daze when he notices someone that decides to sit pretty close to him. The man wore a pretty spiffy business suit that almost contradicted with his black quiff that was slowly drooping into a fringe, and a briefcase sat poised in his lap, as if it was a cat that would hiss at anybody who passed them by. Dan himself was in a black button up and dark jeans, so he didn’t fray too far off in style from this man. But that’s as far as Dan goes into that thought process.

Until a question sparks up.

This man was wide awake. What was he doing in underground at 12:15 in the morning, wide awake and in a business suit?

Dan peers to his left to look at the man again, who was still sitting up but bobbed his head every couple of seconds to stay awake. Maybe he wasn’t as awake as Dan thought. With slight hesitation, Dan scooches over 2 seats and taps the man on the shoulder, the alcohol in his system affecting the social, yet annoying side of himself. The man jolts out of his trance and looks towards Dan with dreary eyes with a tinge of purple baggage underneath.

“Uh, sorry,” Dan starts, “This might be a little nosy but I’m extremely curious, but where do you work? Cause I’ve never seen a business man come onto the underground so late before.”  


The man waves his hand nonchalantly. “It’s alright, I just had a really late night.” He fixes his briefcase position on his lap. “My boss made me finish a whole bunch of paper work before I was able to clock out. I was supposed to get off at 9. But hey, that’s what working at a publishing company will do to you.” He yawns a deep yawn that makes him arch his back and Dan knows that must’ve felt good.

Dan chuckles softly, “Wow that really sucks. Sorry you had to stay so late.”

“Yea,” The man rubs his eye with the back of his hand, but continues drearily, “But it’s better talking to you than getting berated by a man who is ten times more intoxicated than a normal human being should be.” Dan lets out a belly laugh at that one, hoping he didn’t wake anybody who was trying to sleep around them. They stay silent for a moment before Dan tries to break it.

“So, what’s your-?’ Dan looks up to notice the man’s eyes were closed shut. Dan sighs to himself, wondering if he should wake him up to ask or not. All of a sudden the man started to teeter and Dan had to shoot his arms out to catch him.

Damn, Dan thought, this guy really hit the wall.

He carefully brings the man back to lean his body against the barrier next to him, but Dan underestimates how weak he was and the man falls on the whole left side of Dan’s body, chin digging into his shoulder. Dan grimaced at the pain and shifted the man’s chin until the base of his head was resting in the crook of his shoulder. Dan was about to shift the man the other way, but in a deep sleep, he nuzzled into Dan and sighed, obviously now content and comfortable. Dan’s hand hovered over the man’s face, but he hesitated before resting his hands back into his lap with the man resting on his shoulder snored lightly.

It wasn’t the worst situation in the world. At least he was cute. And soon after, Dan fell asleep himself.

He didn’t know how long he slept for, but when he woke up, the man was gone. Dan’s face became laced with disappointment until he noticed a yellow post-it note stuck to his forehead. In confusion, Dan turned over the post-it note that simply read.

_Name’s Phil by the way._  
_***-464-7623_

Dan continued to stare at the note in slight shock. Partly because of the fact that there’s a phone number on it, but also partly because he now realized he was very, very lost and very, very late for work as he bolted out of the underground at the next available stop, sticky note firmly grasped in his hand. He ran, but he ran with a clear smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might do a sequel for this, I don't know. I think this is just short and sweet
> 
> Edit: i am doing a sequel and it's an adventure because go big or go home
> 
> Later edit: i did the sequel! check it out, yo


	2. you fell asleep on my shoulder, and i wanted to tell you i didn't mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan is too much of a flustered human being to call back the man who fell asleep on his shoulder in the underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After months, I finally got out a sequel to my lovely one shot. Surprisingly harder than i thought it would be. I did make some changes to the plot and dan's character to better fit with the story i had in mind, but i think it turned out fine. Maybe.

Dan did in fact get to work on time, if being 2 hours late covered in sweat smelling of last night’s alcohol that seemed to radiate off of his body was called getting to work on time. 

No, it isn’t. And Dan knew that the second he stepped into the building of the high school he worked at as an English teacher. Maybe he should’ve called in sick and a substitute to match. That would’ve been the better option than having the receptionist stare at Dan with wide and judging eyes. She can’t judge, Dan thought. She’s had a bad morning-after before. 

_Not this bad,_ Dan’s conscious rebutted teasingly.

Oh shut up.

By now the receptionist knew that Dan was either still drunk or completely bonkers as she watched the grown man have an inward battle with himself. She didn’t know which side of his own battle he was losing, but she could clearly see that he was losing some sense of himself.

“Uh… sir? Mr. Howell, is it?” The receptionist hesitated to stutter out, as the seemingly insane man in front of her continued to scowl at his black converse. Dan’s fuzzy head snapped up in surprise at the sound of his name being said. That’s when he noticed the confused lady with blonde hair behind the desk, otherwise known as Mrs. Pentland: the high school receptionist. In his confused state, Dan was surprised that he remembered the receptionist’s name at all since he had only been working at the school for the past couple of weeks, what with the new school year starting up and everything. He did want to make friends with the lovely receptionist who could never remember his first name worth shit. But he could do that another time, when he wasn’t running late for a job that he had just started and failing to answer innocent co-worker’s questions that he continued to fail answering. 

Dan realized he still had the sticky note crumpled in his hand and quickly stuffed it in his pocket. After smoothing out his shirt and fixing up his attitude, he walked up to the desk and, making sure to cover up his mouth to keep Mrs. Pentland fainting from his breath, said, “Oh, sorry Mrs. Pentland. Just had a rough night.”

“Yea, I could tell.” Mrs. Pentland scrunched up her nose in slight disgust. Dan noticed this and quickly began smoothing out his disgusting hair. “But Mr. Howell- “

“Dan.” He blurted out, yet Mrs. Pentland seemed unfazed. Dan’s face, however, didn’t have any problem flaring up in red as he dropped his arms back down to his sides. “S-sorry, I preferred to be called Dan.” He didn’t want to be called Mr. Howell unless it was by his students. Even though he’d only been working in the high school for a couple of weeks, Dan wasn’t sure if he was on first name basis with any of his co-workers.

Mrs. Pentland paused for a moment before continuing, “…Okay, Dan. If you feel as awful as you look, why did you come into work today?” He opened his mouth for an answer, but Mrs. Pentland wasn’t finished yet.  


“Better yet, why did you come into work at all?”

Honestly, Dan didn’t know. He didn’t have his suitcase with lesson plans, or his papers he was supposed to hand out, or anything suitable for work in general. After the night he had (the crumpled post-it in his pocket seemed to weigh down the entire left side of his body), Dan felt no right in his mind. But he managed to stumble out a quick, “Uh-uh well I- “

“Because it’s Saturday… Mr. Howell.” The receptionist stressed, her worried eyes fixed on Dan before she lowered her gaze back to her computer. She continued asking him questions about whether he was on duty for today, but Dan’s mind wasn’t trying to pay attention anymore.

…

What the fuck?

If Dan wasn’t confused before, he certainly was now. What did she mean it was Saturday? He ran a now clammy hand through his hair, his reddening face contorting into slight hysterics. Did that mean he ran around half of London, sweating and swearing profusely, when he could’ve spent his time hurrying home to awkwardly but wittingly call up the mysterious man, who for some reason gave Dan his phone number, that fell asleep on his shoulder on the underground? Dan felt his eyes widen in frustration, which he guessed was not unnoticed by Mrs. Pentland, as she was currently looking up from her computer screen again to watch Dan have another internal meltdown (that’s 2 in 3 minutes. a new record).

“Uhh, Dan?” Mrs. Pentland questioned, now with genuine worry. “Are you okay? Do you need a glass of water or something?” Dan shook his head. 

Mrs. Pentland hesitated before speaking again. “Do you need me to phone someone to take you home?” At the word phone, Dan’s hand slowly reached for the left pocket this time, wanting to feel the sharp edges of the crumpled note as if it would take him back in time, but he quickly dismissed it. Instead, he mustered another head shake and took in a deep breath. In. Out. His shoulders finally deflated from their tense state. 

Dan mumbled shamefully, “Sorry, Mrs. Pentland.”

The receptionist smiled and kindly said, “Call me Louise, sweetheart.” And despite Dan’s hatred for being called pet names, he wearily smiled and finished. “It’s just been a long night… that seemed to trickle into the day.”

Mrs. Pentland, Louise, giggled softly in understanding, her work attitude lessening slightly. “We all have those days, sweetheart.” Dan weakly smiled, holding his gaze with her for a moment before sighing once again. He wiped his clammy hands on his shirt and slowly turned to walk back out the front door of the school. Dan was halfway out before he turned around towards Louise once again and said, “Hey, thanks for telling me it was Saturday. I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I probably would’ve headed to my classroom like an idiot.”

Louise waved him off again, “No problem, Dan. Just head on home, okay? Your jitteriness makes it seem like you need to take care of some stuff.” Dan chuckled nervously at Louise’s almost knowingly smirk that stretched across her face (or maybe he imagined that), and he waved her off one more time before exiting the school.

At a much more relaxed pace, Dan begins to trudge towards the nearest underground station. It would only take a couple of minutes, but to Dan it felt like it would take years. He kept looking at the nature around him, relishing in the dull orange and red leaves that were now struggling to hang onto the trees in their pre-winter state. 

Those leaves could be a metaphor for my thoughts right now, Dan thought, or maybe my life in general.

 _Oh shut up you fucking drama queen,_ his conscious snapped at him. _That’s just last night talking._

Last night.

Dan has absolutely no idea how such an uneventful night could leave him absolutely physically and mentally exhausted. Thoughts just kept barreling through his head left and right and Dan didn’t know if it was because of the alcohol anymore. But he was still confused. He drank as much alcohol at that bar as he did at home, or at least he thought he did. Why did his head feel like it weighs one millions pounds?

 _Because you fell for a man you met for 5 minutes on the underground you twat._ His conscious spat at him again with more malice this time. It seems like his inner mind wants to give him a piece of… well… his own mind. 

Dan’s finger’s mindlessly reached into his left pocket, hesitantly pricking them with the sharp edges of that crumpled note that had been sitting quietly in his pocket for what seems like forever. How the hell did he let this random guy get into his head and fuck around with it so quickly and so thoroughly? It’s like his mind wanted him to have an awful time trying to figure it out.

Moments later, Dan snapped out of his heavy thinking to feel the harsh clang of a metal pipe hitting his forehead, indicating that he zoned out long enough to reach the desired rail station. He rubbed the now red bump on his forehead as he dug through his pockets for his oyster card and lazily sat down on a cold, metallic bench as soon as he entered the tunnel. It then occurred to Dan that he didn’t know how long it would take for the next train to come. Did it just leave? Is it going to take an hour? 3 hours? 3 months?? 

_Now you’re just exaggerating,_ his conscious snapped just to prove to Dan how stupid he sounded. 

With that new information in mind, Dan groaned loudly, silently thankful that no one took this train in the middle of the day. He could have all the mental breakdowns he wanted in the middle of a train stop. However, the only things that sounded truly good at the moment were taking a shower, swallowing as many pain killer pills as he could (or at least how many the bottle recommended), and slowly wallowing in his own pity until he gathered enough courage to call back the beautiful man that fell asleep on his shoulder. 

Maybe he was just intimidated. That’s how he’s messing with my head, Dan thought. He’s too pretty for his own good, and he knows it too. Maybe he relishes in the fact that he knows other people get airheaded when they see or are even in the presence of a man as gorgeous as him. He knows he’s gonna corrupt me and take over my thoughts and my life if I call him. He may just ruin my life.

Fucking bastard. 

Mindlessly, his fingers pulled the still crumpled note out of its pocket, delicately unfolding the creases to reveal the number and the name of the gorgeous man (Phil, as Dan seemed to have forgotten), scribbled in smooth black ink. His other set of fingers reached into Dan’s back pocket to pull out his phone, which was quickly draining in power, to punch in the number before his mind and conscious could catch up with his actions. 

It wasn’t until Dan successfully heard the muffled ringing of a phone waiting to be picked up that he realized what he was doing.

“Oh my god”, Dan muttered, staring intently at his shoes. His mind began to panic as it caught up with what he was doing. ‘Oh my god what the fuck am I doing what the fuck am I doing, he’s not gonna answer the phone he can’t because I’m not mentally prepared why the fuck am I doing this when I’m this mentally beat up- “

“Hello?”

“Oh my god!” Dan screeched out, accidentally dropping his phone in the process. Quickly, Dan scrambled to pick up his phone, making sure that it wasn’t cracked before holding the phone up to his ear once again. He waited a quick second before hesitantly mumbling out an almost inaudible, “…Hello.”

Phil paused for a moment. “Uhh hello.”

Silence. 

Dan froze, his lips pursed together awkwardly. He wanted to say something, anything else other than a weak and feeble ‘hello’. But all he could think about, weirdly, was what Phil probably looked like at this moment. Was he at work, his hair quiffed up when it should definitely be in Dan’s fingers instead? Or was he at home, sitting at his dining table with a cup of hot tea in his hands, staring absent mindedly at some cooking show on the TV because his mind kept wandering to the man who let him sleep on his shoulder? Or maybe he was-

“Well, uh, it was great talking to you, but I think I’m gonna hang up- “

Dan quickly snapped out of his imagination to yell out, “Wait!”, managing to hop off of the bench at the sound of his own outburst. He also heard Phil’s breath hitch at the sound of Dan yelling in his ear. Not the best second impression.

“Uh-uhh… I-uhhh…”

 _Why the fuck can’t you get anything coherent out of that dumb mouth of yours,_ his conscious almost screamed at him, sending that thought banging around the walls of his head. However, it seemed to snap Dan out of his stuttering state long enough for him to stop and inhale a calming breath, letting it out slowly before trying to speak again. 

“I promise I’m not always this illiterate, Phil.” Dan said, his mind slowly coming to a halt and his body relaxing back onto the splintering bench beneath him. He heard a giggle (oh my god, he giggles, what a dreamboat) come through the receiver, which caused Dan to do the same, more out of nervousness than anything else. 

Suddenly, Dan’s eyes widened with realization that Phil had no idea who the fuck was muttering incoherent nonsense to him right now. 

“O-oh, it’s Dan… by the way. You, uh, kind of fell asleep on my shoulder on the tube last night.” Dan chuckled, rubbing a suddenly clammy hand on the back of his neck.

“Oh yea, how could I forget!” Phil exclaimed. “I never did learn your name, actually, but I did learn about how terribly comfortable your shoulder was.”

Dan laughed, sounding a bit more genuine. “Well, that is what I was known for in college. My comfortable shoulders.”

“What, really?”

“No.” Dan chuckled.

“Oh.” Phil’s voice lowered in pitch with embarrassment. Dan imagined Phil’s face contorted and colored red in humiliation and to be honest, he just found it absolutely adorable.

“Hey thanks for letting me do that, by the way.” Phil said moments later. “My boss was just super hard on me that day and I don’t take that very easily, so it meant a lot that you let me do something as simple as sleep on your shoulder.” Dan smiled loudly, letting the corners of his mouth touch his eyes. Something he hadn’t done in a while. 

“Hey, it was nothing.” Dan chirped, his smile leaking into his tone which was probably heard by Phil on the other end. “I let random strangers with gorgeous black hair and stunning blue eyes fall asleep on my shoulder all the time.”

 _Oh now you’ve done it,_ his conscious huffed. Dan’s eyes widened as soon as his comment left his mouth, causing his hand to reach up and harshly greet his unsuspecting forehead. As Dan’s hand slowly made its way down Dan’s left cheek, Phil paused for a couple of moments before questioning, “You remembered what color my eyes were?”

The mortified teacher clenched his teeth to match his widened eyes in frustration. He had never felt this speechless in his entire life. Dan was an English teacher for fuck’s sake. He made a living on how to literally fix people’s sentences. And now he couldn’t even do that for himself.

“I-I mean of course I did.” Dan stuttered out. He really was trying his best. “Oh god, that’s sounds really creepy, doesn’t it? I promise I’m trying to be-”

“Hey hey, it’s alright Dan. To be honest, I find it flattering.” Phil soothed through the phone, and Dan felt his cheeks flare up so harshly that he thought his face was going to burst into flames. 

And with that, Dan’s conscious subsided and he decided to blurt out something quickly before he could regret it. However, before it could, Phil asked the question that Dan thought he would’ve definitely embarrassed himself over.

“Hey, what are you doing around noon today?”

Dan felt stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening and a squeak emerging from his throat and out his slack-jawed mouth. He doesn’t know how Phil knew exactly what he was about to ask (mind-tricks, I fucking knew it), but he guesses he paused to ponder a moment too long when the man on the other end began to worry. 

“Oh crap, was that too soon?? Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have been so forward- “

Now it was Dan’s turn to sooth a stuttering beast. Maybe. “Hey, hey no! I-I’m flattered, too, I guess.” Dan stuttered out.

 _Back to where you started with the stuttering,_ Dan’s conscious sneered, but Dan ignored it as best as he could. 

Taking a deep breath, he calmly said, “Well not I guess, but I was just about to ask the same thing.”

“Really?”

“Yea.” Dan confessed, head ducked down in embarrassment, but he let out a silent sigh of relief. “But I’m usually the one who asks too quickly and just shoves my own foot in my mouth, so I was surprised.”

Phil laughed softly. “Well, I guess we can be two halves to a whole idiot, huh?”

“I guess so.” Dan smiled, feeling way too happy to be a part of a whole with this gorgeous man. “And I’m not doing anything at noon. School’s out for the weekend so I didn’t have to come into work today.”  


“Oh, so you’re a teacher?” Phil questioned.

“I sure am.”

“Well, I’d love to hear more about that over lunch. If you don’t mind, of course.”

Dan was about to answer when he felt a sudden wind gust snapped him out of his train of thought and wonderful conversation. Even so, he managed to shout over the noise of the train coming into the station and the mess that his hair was now in. “I’d love to!” He strained his ear to hear Phil over the train’s brakes, but he managed to hear him ask, “-downtown? I know a good place near Trafalgar Square. Is that a train in be background???”

Dan laughed as he boarded the car and said, “Yea, it’s a train. I kind of got lost on the way to work."

"But I thought you just said you didn't have-"

"Uh, long story. Which is why talking about it over lunch sounds fantastic.” He looked at his phones time, which showed that it was around 10:30. At this time, Dan was usually watching some sort of crap show on his telly. He frowned at the thought until he heard Phil’s voice pick up again.

“That’s great.” Phil chuckled, and Dan could feel his smile through the phone. “I’ll see you then?”

“Definitely.” Dan smiled back into the receiver and pressed end call on his phone, looking up from his lap to look around the empty car. 

A couple of seats away, he noticed a man and a woman sitting close together. Married couple, maybe, Dan thought. The woman was reading a book intently while the man next to her was nuzzled into the crook of the woman’s shoulder. Seconds later, Dan noticed the man shift in his sleep, to which the woman looked towards the man and smiled before kissing the top of his head, slowly shifting her gaze back to her book. 

Dan couldn’t help but feel a couple of butterflies let loose in his stomach, quieting his conscious that kept scratching away in his mind, trying to tell Dan that this was a bad idea. He was better off alone and sticking to a routine.

Maybe he was.

But after their lunch date, and the many more that the two men had after that, Dan felt that maybe a major change in his routine was good for him. That maybe Phil was good for him.

And that didn’t upset Dan one bit.

**Author's Note:**

> I might do a sequel for this, I don't know. I think this is just short and sweet
> 
> Edit: i am doing a sequel and it's an adventure because go big or go home
> 
> Later edit: i did the sequel! check it out, yo


End file.
